


grave without a body

by druidforhire



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series), Fantasy High
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Injury, Kidnapping, Sort Of, Trapped, if i get far enough into writing this. Youll See, s2 spoilers be warned!!!, sorry guys i just like bullying adaine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26437444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/druidforhire/pseuds/druidforhire
Summary: Aelwyn is nothing if not prepared. Like every test she’s ever taken and every spell she’s ever cast, Aelwyn is smart, Aelwyn is ready, Aelwyn is adaptable. She will never, ever be caught off guard without a contingency plan. There will always be a backup.At the house party, right after Ostentatia disappears in a flurry of light and fractals, Adaine appears, and panic floods her chest because she’snot supposed to be here;the surprise and the fury and theI can’t let her tellrises in her, and on instinct, on violent impulse, Aelwyn pulls her maiden sister into a crystal palimpsest.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Everything in this fic is subject to proofreading and rewriting, but just on stuff like sentence structure and flow. All major plot points should remain the same.

Aelwyn is nothing if not prepared. Like every test she’s ever taken and every spell she’s ever cast, Aelwyn is smart, Aelwyn is ready, Aelwyn is adaptable. She will never, ever be caught off guard without a contingency plan. There will always be a backup.

At the house party, right after Ostentatia disappears in a flurry of light and fractals, Adaine appears, and panic floods her chest because she’s  _ not supposed to be here _ ; the surprise and the fury and the  _ I can’t let her tell _ rises in her, and on instinct, on violent impulse, Aelwyn pulls her maiden sister into a crystal palimpsest.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Adaine feels her entire form dissolved and reconstituted, loosely, and she is surrounded by jagged crystal and mirror, and when she realizes what’s happened (and that she’s alone) she is so, so scared. Her spells won’t work and she’s pulling at walls that cut her fingers and smear with her blood the more she struggles with them, when she tries to smash them, in desperation; she is yelling for her party, yelling for her sister, both to let her out. Her breathing is getting heavy.  _ I’m going to fucking kill my sister, _ she thinks.

The walls of the palimpsest are diamond-shaped mirrors, cracked and slightly crooked from whatever jailbreaking they had to do to it. They refract the image (and the anger and the fear) of Adaine a million times over like some kind of hellish funhouse mirror cage, but she’s not having fun, she’s furious, and her blood is on the walls.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Riz watches Adaine disappear in front of him. (This won’t be the last time.)

A million recalculations fire off in his head. Two things are immediate. First: he _cannot_ take Aelwyn alone. Second: he has to _do_ _something._

He aims a bullet straight for her head, but all he does is crack the orange abjuration circles that are swirling around her. He dives out of the way as she curses him out and slings a spell at him, and then she casts another one and she’s  _ gone. _ She’s gone and she took their most versatile spellcaster with her. She’s gone and she took Adaine and Ostentatia with her. She’s gone, and Adaine is another missing girl.

Riz tears off to get help. And he kind of hates it, because Aelwyn is  _ getting away, _ he needs to go after her and stay on her tail before they lose her and getting the others is wasted time, but there is no fucking way he can take her by himself. He races downstairs, snatches Kristen from almost-smooching an Earth elemental that smashes into the floor where she was a moment ago, and goes careening into the yard.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Fig is (was) having a great time.

She and Gorgug have a  _ gig _ here. Yeah, it’s at a house party populated by snotty Hudol boys, but beginnings are hardly ever spectacular. And it’s precisely the sort of beginnings that rockers like them get. Grungy basements, smoke-filled clubs--she’s got this. They’re gonna be great.

But then the chord she strikes loses its grit. It mellows out, goes  _ smooth, _ and she hears something whisper off her bass strings like the last dredges of smoke from a blown-out candle, and her stomach drops when she realizes that not only does she recognize this from when they’d found Johnny Spells, but she recognizes who it’s  _ from. _

_ Save me. _

Right as she turns to Gorgug to say something, Riz comes running.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Fabian is riding around desperately on the Hangman, with Fig on the back who is improvising some sonar-type thing on her bass to try and find Aelwyn. Riz is sitting in her backpack with his gun out and his eyes and ears sharp. They’re not finding anything, but Fabian refuses to just let her get away with this. She  _ can’t _ get away with this. She took their  _ friend,  _ and she’s evil, and she needs to go down. (It’s a bummer he couldn’t get kisses, but Adaine’s safety comes first. Why do they always have to be evil?)

Kristen and Gorgug stayed behind at the house. They don’t fit on the Hangman, so they’ve convinced the Hudol boys to look for Aelwyn and tell them where she is if they see her while they help clean up the elementals, who are now pretty focused on killing them. They don’t hold up well to over thirty decently-leveled spellcasters, though. 

With that over with, the search for Aelwyn goes on; the Hudol boys aren’t really convinced that she has done something terrible and needs to be taken down (fucking prep school nerds), because she is  _ so _ cool and important and smart that she could  _ never, _ Kristen thinks bitterly. But they  _ do _ want to know where their hot, powerful, and popular wizard who was supplying all the (fake) hot girls and hard drugs went. Without her, it’s kind of just a sad sausage fest circlejerk, and even Kristen knows that for these kinds of people, going home early from what was supposed to be a rager of a party is really fucking lame. 

Even with all these spellcasters with See Invisibility and Blink and Locate Creature and Scrying, they can’t find anything. The only thing that comes up is a powerful chronomancy from Detect Magic that none of them can place. It makes Kristen want to wring their weak little necks, though it’s not their fault; Aelwyn is crazy powerful, and she can’t say that she’s surprised to find out that she’s completely evaded them.

The emotional whiplash from talking about coming out with a hot cheerleader to  _ hurry the fuck up our friend just got kidnapped and she’s in danger and we don’t know what they’re going to do to her _ had her reeling at first, before the battle-focus came in. But it’s been two hours now, and she and Gorgug are sitting on the curb of Seacaster Manor waiting for the rest of the Bad Kids to arrive, and she’s just… stewing, and upset, and feeling really nervous and overall bad. This was supposed to be a  _ party. _ She was gonna pour out her beers and open up to pretty girls about her feelings. Adaine...

When Fabian pulls up and Riz hops out of Fig’s bag, the three of them looking for some kind of answer, Gorgug just gives them a sad look and Kristen shakes her head.

The guilt creeps up Riz’s throat. He wants something to shoot, and imagines Aelwyn’s head getting blown clean off her shoulders.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Aelwyn is adaptable. Aelwyn is adaptable. Aelwyn is adaptable. She always knows what to do when something goes unexpectedly, and she can always come back from a bad situation. (“Unexpectedly,” because she cannot afford to be “wrong.”) 

The headstart she has would be meager if not for the watch. Again, that violent impulse: she clicks for a full twelve hours on herself and herself only before she can even think, and when everything stops, she does too. Just for a minute.

She needs to figure out what to do now.

From the rooftop, Aelwyn surveys the scene. She thinks. 

The original plan was to nab Ostentatia, murder as many of the Adaine’s friends as possible, and then get the hell out of dodge. But then Adaine caught her, and Aelwyn trapped her, and now everything went downhill and now they’re here. She curses; yet again her sister has proven herself a terrible thorn in her side.

She wasn’t supposed to follow her. She was supposed to  _ stay out of it, _ and then it would have been  _ fine. _

Aelwyn should’ve stuck to the original plan and just Teleported out if things got too hot, which she doubts; they’re all a bunch of fucking stupid  _ freshmen. _ Freshmen who have come dangerously close to unraveling everything that she’s been working towards, but  _ freshmen. _ But she’s here now, alone in a time stop, and now she has to make do.

Her thoughts are flying. She can do this. She can make something good out of this. 

The Harvestmen have gone rogue and with them their plot to start a war, but Aelwyn can surely spin something now that she’s got her sister. 

Yeah. Yeah. She’s got something. She’s going to go home, and she is going to spread rumors and conspiracies of her sister’s disappearance; surely Fallinel would like to know why their ambassador’s daughter has disappeared, the Elven oracle, all while things have been quite tense around Elmville lately. The oracle dies at sea and the very next, who happens to be on Solesian soil, goes missing; why wouldn’t that raise suspicion? Then she’ll hide to ramp up the tension and make things worse. One child is bad enough, but both? Perhaps Fallinel may be concerned enough to do something about it, if she whispers the right things to the right ears.

This is assuming she can spend any time waiting. Adaine’s friends are  _ surely _ on her ass now that they not only know her direct involvement but also she is in possession of one of their party members. She might have to get out of town right away.

She can still make that work.

If she goes missing, then the police are going to investigate, and she can’t leave behind any trace that she was anything but the most golden a child could be. No one can find out she did this, least of all her parents. No one can  _ ever _ find out.

Aelwyn casts Fly on herself and hops off of the roof. She has twelve hours.

She’s gonna go clean her room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adaine is gone, but it doesn't mean she's out. The Bad Kids keep going.

When Aelwyn heaves open the window to her room, Kalina is there to greet her, leaning against the wall. She looks perfectly calm. Languid, even. Nothing like Aelwyn’s fervor of panic and paranoia. She can feel her heart hammering in her chest, can feel herself start getting lightheaded, but she wouldn’t be Aelwyn Abernant if this is what stopped her. Fear isn’t going to get the better of her. Fear isn’t going to suffocate or break her. She’s not Adaine.

Kalina shakes her head when she sees her in the window. “Oh, Aelwyn. How are you gonna get out of this one?”

Something in her tone makes her hackles raise as she bristles with indignity. Screw this stupid cat and her stupid illusions and her stupid plot shit, she thinks. _Whatever._ Kalina thinks she’s _so_ expert and cool and good at this stuff, and maybe she _is,_ she _is_ as powerful and smart as she acts, but she doesn’t have to rub it in her goddamn _face_.

“Simple,” she states. She opens her dresser with more force than strictly necessary and starts tossing the bottles of hard liquor over her shoulder, where they float suspended in the time stop. “I’m going to disappear. The police are going to investigate the disappearances of the Fallinese ambassador's two daughters in a town that's been having trouble brewing for some time now, and they're going to find _nothing_ , and then _I'm_ going to start the war that _Daybreak_ failed to give us. If Adaine’s stupid _friends_ want a conspiracy so badly, I’ll give them one.”

“Okay,” Kalina says slowly. Her tail swishes. “And then what?”

Aelwyn shoves baggies of snuff out the window. “Then we wait. We get the maidens to Biz and we get them downloaded, and the little snotball can murder Adaine’s friends. I come home with Adaine when Kalvaxus is released. _Done.”_

Kalina’s eyes narrow in a way that reminds her too much of the scrutinization of her father. She scowls back, then turns away to pull the guns and edibles out of her nightstand. God, the liquor and the drugs in her system are not agreeing with her stress right now. Aelwyn tries to force her hands to stop shaking.

“Kiddo... you’re smart, but what you did was _not._ And you need a better plan.” Kalina pushes off of the wall and stands with her arms crossed. “How about this: you stay.”

Aelwyn drops a bottle of vodka. “What?”

“Stay in Elmville. Don’t go into hiding. Tell your parents that Adaine’s gone but you don’t know who took her. You checked her room, you called her crystal, and you got nothing back. Her friends know she’s gone too and think it’s your fault. They’re spreading rumors in both Aguefort and Hudol, but it’s not true. Your parents will do anything to cover up your tracks, Aelwyn.” Kalina strolls towards Aelwyn as she speaks until she’s standing right in front of her, gaze locked with hers. “Don’t worry about those kids as long as you’re hiding behind them. We’ll take care of it.”

Aelwyn straightens her back. Squares her shoulders. She’s rolled a twelve on insight and doesn’t know what Kalina thinks she’s doing--intimidating her, making sure she listens, or _what,_ but she refuses to look meek right now, because she’s _not._ She refuses to look unfit. “And what about the war?” 

Kalina’s eyes are piercing. “Elmville’s still got a missing girl problem that’s been going on for months. Uprooting the Harvestmen wasn’t the end of it, and now not only is Ostentatia gone, but your sister as well. It’s like you said: Fallinel won’t be happy about the ambassador’s daughter going missing, and clearly the Solesian government is not competent enough to stop it.” She inclines her head. “Angwyn doesn’t care about Adaine--”

Aelwyn bristles. “Don’t say that--”

“--but he _does_ care about his family name, and the daughter of the Fallinese ambassador going missing on Solesian soil in an area of known suspicious activity reflects dimly on the Abernants. He is going to want something done about it, and Fallinel will take his side, and they just might become concerned enough to do something about it that constitutes an act of war.”

* * *

“Adaine’s parents are a bunch of assholes,” Fig spits. After the Bad Kids reconvened in Seacaster Manor and went to Fabian’s room for privacy, then scoured the KVX Bank About page, she’d gone off recounting what she, Riz, and Fabian had found when they stopped by the Abernant home for answers. Interrogating the parents had been a frustrating process. “They wouldn’t even listen to us. They think Aelwyn is too much of a golden child to be evil. They said all my photos were fake!”

“To be fair, you _are_ an illusionist,” Riz points out.

“So?! That just means they should believe me _more,_ ‘cause my disguises are so good!”

Kristen chimes in with, “What did you find?”

“We--well, we found out that Penelope Everpetal is involved.”

“How?” Gorgug asks.

Fig taps her chin. “Well, I cast Detect Thoughts on her mom while Riz and Fabian were grilling them about where they thought Aelwyn went, since they don’t think she went to a party. They said she left with a half-elf sorceress to go study, and like… they didn’t _say_ it, but based on their descriptions of her and the image I got in the mom’s head, I’m _pretty_ sure it’s Penelope. Half-elf sorcerer girl with brown hair and preppy clothes?”

“That sounds like a lot of people.”

Fabian makes a face. “That does _not_ sound like a lot of people. It’s not that generic, come on.”

Kristen says, “I’m pretty sure the sorcery teach has, like, an entire class of preppy brown-haired half-elves.”

He rolls his eyes magnificently. “ _Okay,_ well,” he huffs, “Fig’s pretty sure she saw Penelope, and _we’re_ all pretty sure she’s involved, right? She was all concerned about Sam and Johnny Spells and she was probably with Aelwyn. This is the best we have for getting our friend back.”

“I think it’s worth looking into,” Riz grumbles. “We don’t really have any other clues. And… we _really_ need to get Adaine back.”

“Computer,” Fabian announces, “search Penelope Everpetal.”

* * *

Riz dreams that night.

When he opens his eyes in sleep, his stomach drops. He recognizes this place. He knows this endless hall of mirrors, this hellish infinite fractal palace. The first time he was here, he’d seen Penny. This time, he sees Adaine.

She looks as she did right before she disappeared.

First things first: make sure that this is all real. If this is all an illusion to get him to spill vital info, it will ruin everything they’ve been working towards. “Adaine?” he calls, glancing around. God, it’s so fucking hard to actually tell if anything here is fake when it’s _all_ fake, ‘cause it’s a dream, and this is the metaphorical inside of a fucking magic crystal. And he doesn’t have any spells for Detect Magic or anything. He’s just got a gun.

Wait, does he? He pats around for a moment, feeling a familiar weight at his hip. Okay. So his gun is with him in the dream. Cool.

“Riz!” comes her familiar voice. “Riz, what happened? What the fuck?”

“You, uh… hold on.” He bites her arm.

_“Ow!”_ She jerks back, sputtering half-formed profanities and shaking out her wounded limb. “Ow, Riz! What the hell?!”  
  


“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I had to make sure you were real!”

“By _biting me?”_

“It worked!”

“Riz!”

“Not all of us are spellcasters, okay?”

_“Riz,_ I swear to Helio, I hope you at least brushed your teeth before you--”

“Okay, okay!” He holds up his hands in surrender. “I did, okay, I just went to bed. Adaine, listen. I don’t think we have a lot of time here. What’s going on? Do you know where you are? What’s happening?”

Adaine grimaces. “I… I’m not sure. I sort of… reached out, magically, with some kind of diviner’s sense I think? And I found you. I don’t know where I’ve been taken, I don’t know what they’re going to do with me, none of my spells will do anything, I…” She pauses, then takes a shuddering breath. Her long ears tilt down. “I don’t know. I just found you. What’s going on out there, Riz?”

“Oh,” he says. “Um… well, we couldn’t find Aelwyn.”

“That bitch.”

“Yeah. Uh, and we found out that Penelope Everpetal’s involved so we're probably gonna go snoop around her house, and that Zelda’s next on her weird missing girl hit list, so… we set Gorgug and her up on a date--”

“ _What?_ ” Adaine hisses. “I can’t believe I missed that! God, I’m going to kill my fucking sister.”

Riz doesn’t break his stride. “Honestly, yeah, it was super awkward but super cute, you should’ve been there, uh… and then, actually, _before_ that, there was this weird guy from KVX Bank at Fabian’s house. We met up there after you disappeared. He was there when we arrived, for some kind of ‘special investments’ business. We’re not sure what that means. We tried looking it up on their About page, but it was all…” He gestures vaguely. “Really vague.”

“KVX bank,” she mutters. Riz can see the focus settling in as she checks and re-checks her own thoughts. “Isn’t that the one that didn’t give out pens or lollipops? The really lame bank?”

“Yeah, the lame bank. They’re based out of Bastion City.

“Special investments. What does that…?”

“We don’t know. We didn’t really--”

_“Oh!”_ Adaine bolts upright with the sudden force of a realization. She locks eyes with Riz. “KVX. _Kalvaxus.”_

Riz stops. His brow furrows. “What?”

“Kalvaxus,” she repeats. “I was reading about Solesian history a while ago, Kalvaxus was the Emperor of the Red Waste, he--he was, like taking over Solace and whatever, and then the Queen defeated him or something, and then the Council of Chosen was founded? And the Elven Oracle warned the Queen or something, and the Oracle was Arthur Aguefort’s girlfriend or something?”

“Okay,” Riz says slowly. This is… they’ve definitely stumbled on something big. He knows that this connection is _important._ There’s got to be something _in_ there, but… “What does that mean, though?”

“I… don’t know.” Adaine gets a frustrated look on her face, leaning against a crystal pillar as she gazes off in thought. “He was defeated a long time ago. I don’t know why he’d be involved in anything _now._ ”

“Unless… was he ever killed?”

“No, I think… no.” She looks at him. “No, it only said he was defeated.”

Riz straightens. “Then he’s trying to come back.”

“I think so,” she replies. “But what does that have to do with the palimpsests? And the hellmouth? Or--”

Riz feels a sudden jolt in that moment, knocked off-balance, his feet slipping across the glassy floor as he falls backwards on his ass. All the sparkling light in this endless room flickers for a second. Adaine jumps, looking panicked.

Riz fixes his hat that got knocked askew. “What was that?” 

“I think I’m losing you,” she says. “I’ve already had you here for a long time. I don’t think I can for much longer.”

“You’re--” Riz can’t help but chuckle, “--you’re losing cell reception?”

“I guess so! I don’t know where I am!”

He stands up. “Okay! Okay. I--”

Another jolt hits him. It’s as if the whole space shifts under his feet, like a tablecloth being pulled from under him, and he slips again. The entire room begins to warp, pulling away from him, and Adaine with it, even as he scrabbles desperately for purchase on the featureless mirrored floor. 

“Riz!” she calls after him.

  
“Adaine,” he shouts back. “Hang on! We’re gonna come for you!”

“I know!”

Riz wakes up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Bad Kids find Adaine at the new Elmville Valley Mall arcade.

The video game arcade was a giant, dimly lit neon techno-scape, with more than enough machines for Elmville’s teenagers to spend their whole afternoons in. A million game cabinets, skeeball machines, so many things flashing and ticking and dinging and beeping--everything poised to be played and dole out scores, rewarding tickets for exchange with the colorful array of prizes at the front. The carpet was fresh, which was a rarity for floors of this kind. Usually they don’t last long before they’re sticky with spilled soda and grubby mall-goer shoes. Kristen wagered that it was only a matter of time.

“Guys, I got a slushie,” she announces as she walks in, having gotten sidetracked and only now catching up to the rest of them. “If anyone wants some, it’s in, like, one of those…” she gestures widely with her arms, “long, yard things…”

Riz gives her a look of bewilderment. “That’s a margarita. Who gave you a margarita?”

She laughs, unprocessing. “What?”

“It’s war times,” Fabian says with a dismissive hand. “I’m sure everything’s  _ looser _ now.”

Kristen wanders off and pokes around the arcade. Every new installation in town frankly has her a little on edge, given everything. First the lame bank that’s involved with Kalvaxus. Now this new place. At this point, she figures that it’s worth burning the spell slot to cast Detect Good and Evil. 

A wave of her hand and a spoken word, and a part of her mind opens up to prove her right.

The spell picks up on a faint malevolent presence in a couple of the game cabinets. Which is like, why is this kind of thing  _ everywhere, _ but also pretty much what she expected. Kristen’s brow sets as she moves to go check it out.

* * *

  
  


Biz starts wheeling the power source into the back. “Riz, you wanna give me a hand, dude?”

Riz looks up, nods. “Yup.”

It’s a task and a half for a single small creature to get a thing like this set up, even if Biz has the wings to compensate for his height, but two are enough to get it moved and set up. They wheel it in and get everything plugged and connected, everything ready to go.

Something catches Riz’s eye.

“Alright,” Biz says, “well, we get this puppy purring, we’ll be able to crack those palimpsests in no time.”

There’s a little video game console. The label on it calls it “Lucky Stones.”

_ Lucky Stones. _

He can see a little halfling girl-- _ Penny-- _ appear on the screen, like some kind of  _ video game character _ (she’s not, she’s not, that’s  _ Riz’s babysitter and his first friend) _ . “Hi! I’m Penny! Wanna play?” she twitters, before leaping around the screen collecting coins in some kind of title screen animation. Riz feels something in his stomach turn to ice.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Kristen squints, peering past the bright glare of the screen in the darkness of the arcade. She prods around on the buttons and the joysticks, trying to figure it out, and drops a silver in the machine for good measure.

When Adaine appears on the screen and challenges her to sort her tomes in a pixelated library, Kristen gapes, mouths  _ what the fuck, _ and immediately casts Guardian of Faith (because this isn’t good,  _ this can’t be good,  _ she can’t have just  _ found Adaine  _ in an  _ evil arcade game _ and expect nothing to  _ happen, _ what the fuck is she  _ doing here? _ What the fuck are they gonna do?) 

She has to go tell the others. She found her.

  
  


* * *

Biz looks over. “Riz, what’s goin’ on, my man?”

Riz, stricken, points slowly at the screen. “Uh, that…” he pauses, “... is one of the missing girls. She used to be my babysitter. And she’s in that game.”

Biz gets an odd look on his face. Something furtive. He lowers his voice, leaning in a little. “Hey. Can I be super honest with you for a sec?”

Riz nods hurriedly. Biz continues, “Guys like us don’t really get… a  _ chance _ , to be  _ cool. _ You know what I mean?”

The smile on his face is sinister. It’s all Riz needs to throw all of his walls up. He doesn’t know how much of a hand Biz actually has in the KVX plot, how much of him is aligned with the big picture, or how much he’s just letting himself be used in this conspiracy for his own stupid,  _ selfish _ purposes, but he knows enough. Biz is not on their side. More than that: Biz is a nasty little fucking creep.

“Sure,” Riz grits out.

“And, um… you know, it’s not, like,  _ fair,  _ like, hot guys always get, like, all the attention. And like…”

“Are you giving me a _nice guy_ _speech_ right now?”

“But here’s the  _ thing, _ dude. Here? With these?” He pulls a blank palimpsest out of his pocket. The sight of it turns the ice in Riz’s stomach to hot, boiling rage. “We get to call the shots, when they’re in  _ here.” _

He needs to get that out of Biz’s hands. He flips his attitude like a switch, putting on his game face, playing along to let Biz think that he’s on his side. Make him think he’s  _ totally down _ to  _ kidnap girls _ and then  _ hold them hostage in games _ just because he’s lonely. As far as Biz knows, Riz is still in on it, and he’s just fine with letting him keep on thinking that. “Oh, so  _ we _ make the games. Got it.” He leans in close. “Dude, are you the one that’s hookin’ all these up?”

Biz smirks with pride. “Uh, what can I say, dude? I’m good at what I do.”

He flits back to the machine and lays a hand on the tower. There are crystals hooked into it, which Riz hadn’t thought much of before--crystal technology is everywhere, after all, the sight isn’t uncommon--but it clicks for him now that it isn’t just arcanotech. Those are the missing girls.  _ That’s where Adaine is. _

He continues. “I’ve already got my prize, the delectable Lady Abernant. But you, Riz… the little dudes have to stick together, right?” He holds up and wags a crystal in his grubby little paw. “I got one extra one from our new supplier. If you have your sights on a girl out there… well. I saved this one just in case.”

Riz  _ seethes _ . “Can I see it?”

“Uh… are you  _ in, _ dude? ‘Cause you feel like a cool guy.”

He grins his goblin teeth and says, “Dude, I am  _ in.” _

Biz grins and holds it out for him to take. “Take a look, go for it. What do you think?”

As soon as his fingers touch the smooth glass, he rips it from his hands and pulls his gun on him.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Riz’s vision goes white. He feels every molecule and atom in his body deconstruct painlessly and then reform, and when he can see again, the world is all squares. Riz can make out color-coded bookshelves.

_ “Hi, I’m Adaine Abernant! Sort these books into all the right shelves, or else I’ll kill you!”  _

_ Fuck. _

He looks up and sees Adaine, forced and squeezed into coding and animation presets, and hates the way he finds nothing in her eyes _. _ He does not like this at  _ all. _ This whole situation is so fucked--but this is Biz’s work, this is Biz’s stupid game, and Riz needs to beat him at it if he wants to help her. 

He grits his teeth and looks at the massive, digitally rendered tomes, and yelps as he narrowly avoids the bolt of white magic that comes hurtling his way.

Adaine is coming towards him with another bolt manifesting in her hand. Riz picks up the books and runs.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Adaine is horribly smart, which makes this game  _ hard _ . Riz usually loves having someone else in the party who is just as sharp, perceptive, and book-smart as he is--it always reminds him that he’s not quite the alien loser he thinks he is, and if Adaine can be super cool and a bookworm at the same time, then so can he--but the fact that her arcade game has predictive AI is just flat-out  _ unfair. _

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Get your greasy little hands  _ off me!” _

Fabian holds Adaine’s palimpsest out of Biz’s reach and shoves him off of him, leveling the point of his sword at the pixie as he goes tumbling through the air. There is no fucking way Biz is getting this back, he swears to God. That loser rolled a nat 1 attack roll. 

Biz’s eyes go wide. “ _ No! My lady Abernant!”  _ he cries, and comes careening back, arms outstretched.

He completely overreaches in his desperation; Gorgug yells, “Shut up, you dumb creep!” and takes a piece out of him on the downswing of his axe.

“Riz!” Fabian yells, and before the little fucker can come back for another try, it’s Riz’s turn. Nimble as he always is, he leaps up and snatches it from Fabian’s hand, taking off across the back room and readies an action to throw it to someone else if a ghost or Biz comes for him. They couldn’t save all of the maidens in time, but they got Adaine. Now they need to  _ keep _ Adaine. As desperate as he is to rescue Penny and the rest of them, having the party wizard back is the most important thing right now. He knows they’re fucked without a primary spellcaster.

Gorgug swings at the remaining ghosts and fucks them up pretty well; he cleaves straight through one of them, but another makes it past and flies straight for Riz.

“Fabian, heads up!” Riz cocks back a hand and lobs the crystal. Fabian jumps to catch it with all of his athletic Bloodrush prowess, but he fumbles, and the palimpsest bounces off his fingertips, sailing down to the hard tile floor.

Kristen, negative-dex Kristen, flip-flop-wearing Kristen, is the only person in that side of the room. She knows that she should be the last person to be trusted with this. Like this. She’s not flighty or climby or fast or strong like the rest of them are, she’s fumbled every game of hackey-sack and dodgeball she’s ever played. Kristen is good at healing and good at magic.

She has to try.

The die is tossed into the Box of Doom and comes up 1.

Kristen trips, flails, and the back of her hand smacks the crystal straight into the ground at a horrible angle. The sound of cracking cuts through the room.

She wants to  _ scream. _


End file.
